Year: 2010
Type: conference-paper
Abstract: With the Building America (BA) program advancing to the 50% source energy savings level, it is becoming a high priority to properly model whole house moisture loads and operation of humidity control equipment.In a 50% savings home, space sensible cooling load is significantly reduced by high-performance envelopes, EnergyStar appliances, and efficient lighting.Conventional air-conditioning equipment is unlikely to maintain healthy space relative humidity during key periods of the year.In addition, with the significant reduction of the other space energy consumption, dehumidification equipment energy consumption becomes a bigger portion of whole house energy consumption.A parametric study was conducted using EnergyPlus version 4.0 to analyze the impact of various dehumidification equipment and control strategies on a typical mid-1990's reference home, a 2006 IECC home, and a highperformance home in a hot humid climate.Space relative humidity, thermal comfort, and whole house energy consumption were analyzed.The study was compared with past published modeling results (Henderson et al., 2008).The results confirmed that supplemental dehumidification must be provided in a high-performance home in order to maintain space conditions below 60% relative humidity.A detailed analysis was conducted to examine indoor relative humidity excursions; specifically the number of excursions, average excursion length, and maximum excursion length.Recommendations were made on dehumidification options in high-performance homes.
Authors: Xia Fang, Jon Winkler, Dane Christensen
Language: English
Subfield: Building and Construction
Field: Engineering
Domain: Physical Sciences
Open Access status: green
OpenAlex ID: W1563737252